How everyone behaves might be a product of society. Every individual is given the right to decide, be sure that you practice and exercise it so as not to fall on the cons of social conventionality.
Conformity is a social influence that changes a person’s behavior or beliefs to fit in with a distinct group. This change happens as a counter to either imagined or real pressure and expectations from the group. It may involve the force of societal norms, the physical presence of other people, or a general aspiration to gain a specific level of success.
Social norms are the behaviors that are expected from people as a community. They play a prominent role in everyday life that people do not realize. Social norms give people an expected behavior of how to act in a specific situation and what is appropriate and inappropriate in different settings.
Moreover, people’s behavior changes as the individual become more attracted to a group they need to belong to; this is known as conformity. Consequently, this can make an individual feel pressured to change their beliefs to the groups, even if they do not believe in them themselves. However, not everyone is attracted to the same group or is as easily persuaded. Fulfilling the needs of someone in authority can portray an individual as submissive and obedient. This power can influence specific behavior as those in charge are seen as more intelligent and therefore are listened to. In more particular behaviors like drug use or alcohol consumption, group peer pressures can be responsible for this behavior. Family and friends are essential when considering the social norms one would follow and the decisions one makes. Conformity is a change in a person’s beliefs and behavior which can affect human behavior.
These are the cons of social conformity that are essential to review.
1. It hampers personal progress. The company, a person, chooses to keep becomes a direct reflection of the success they’re able to achieve. If you surround yourself with positive influences, your desire for conformity will create favorable outcomes for you. The opposite occurs if you allow yourself to be covered with negative people. Dire consequences can ruin your chances at success in a variety of ways.
2. Increases the chances of depression. The fear of being rejected is something that most individuals face at least once in their lives. It builds a feeling that compels you to follow the people you want to have, like you blindly. If you succumb to this pressure, the emotional response in either direction increases the chances of depression forming later in life.
3. Causes one to lose their identity. The actions that groups play some people to make them conform creates a problematic issue because it forces a loss of their identity. Each individual is distinctly different from every other.
4. It often leads to apathy. The desire for conformity on a personal level often builds a group apathy that becomes prevalent in society. The individuals who try to conform often feel like they can do the same things the groups they observe do now. When they can gain that success, they look to a higher power to handle whatever concerns they feel are impacting their efforts. Blind trust always creates problems in society. It also generates feelings where people decide that issues are not their problems. They agreed that everyone else should handle the situation and pressure others just as their preferred groups placed it on them.
Chet Shupe, an author of the book, “Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature—How Civilization Destroys Happiness,” hopes it will inspire a reawakening to one’s inborn wisdom; this is Nature’s map of life, which civilized life ignores, to one’s grave detriment. Regaining humanity’s natural sense of order, purpose, and belonging cannot be forced. It will result from one’s recognition that the only access to the wisdom of one’s soul is the feelings everyone experiences in light of one’s present circumstances. Feelings inspired by one’s concerns about the imagined future, on the other hand, dissociate everyone from the wisdom of one’s soul, the souls of those around us, and, most ominously, from the experience of being alive to the moment. When forced by externally imposed laws that repress our feelings of the moment out of concern for our future well-being, we are not living. We are marking time.
- As you live, you must remember that there are other people, organisms, and Nature. Humanity should consider that everyone is affecting every individual and everything. So when you interact, think of how you affect everyone and everything that surrounds you.